While were here wanted to get some second thoughts on tapering side wall on raised patio areas. Or crowning the pavers. I did one fairly large 2 foot tall raised patio around 1800 square feet but otherwise haven't really done one. That one was rounded and I dropped the grade for drainage. This one is a bit taller about 3.5 feet or 5 blocks and a cap. I remember a thread here from a few years ago where some were saying angle the walls or put a garden bed along the front of the wall. Not really an option on this plan.
I remember the thread about that a year or so back. I don't remember who posted it or what came of it.
I don't see how you could pitch the blocks on a slope without having to angle them up as they went laterally at the bottom of the slope if that makes sense.
I agree with J Baker, make it flat and if you are really concerned, use the drainable pavers. Slightly different look though. I also think if you don't use sand for screed, but some 1/4-10 or whatever you call it up there, and no poly sand (unless it is the permeable type) pavers will drain quite well without any pitch.
Last year we did a job, basically a recessed patio surrounded by walls after the unfinished basement storage area was turned into living quarters. The whole thing was excavated out of the side of a hill. While we pitched the subgrade native layer a good 2 to 3 percent away from the house in one direction, I told my foreman to make the patio level, 0% pitch, primarily to keep the paver height consistent along the door thresh hold, and also to avoid having to dig deeper into the hill which was becoming like bedrock.
After the job was done, I realized that I had basically just created a fishbowl that water and surrounding drainage could fill up and flood the new basement living area. I was super paranoid, went over there with a hose to try and simulate a heavy rain to see what would happen, told the clients I was just cleaning the pavers off
.
A few weeks later I left town for a wedding right before our first big rain event of the fall. I checked the forecast and saw a prediction of 1.2 inches of rain over the night. Plenty of water to prove whether our patio would flood or not.
I anxiously awaited a phone call from the client which never came. Many big rain events later that winter i finally relaxed! There was no issue with ponding, flooding which I primarily attribute to the 1/4-10 screed base. That was 15 months ago...
